7 ms·

I'm evaluating it. Why do you think it's the future? What's the feature you value most?

ma2rten 8y ago
I tried both Flutter and ReactNative. I am not an expert, so take it with a grain of salt, but here is my first impression: I would say the best part about it is the hot reload, which maintains application state. It's compiled to native code so it's going to run faster than ReactNative which is a javascript bundle that runs besides your app. Compile times are fast, but not instantaneous and you have to trigger the reload manually. I think it also has the most complete implementation of Material UI out there. It implements widgets that are not implemented in iOS, Android nor Web. It's like having something like bootstrap that makes it easier to build a good looking app. I feel like you really need a mock first to build a reactnative app, but you could get away with just writing code in flutter. Unlike ReactNative there is no way of trying it without installing the Android or iOS development environment. Initially that was a bit of a barrier for me as a first-time mobile dev, but not a big deal eventually. It's not as mature as ReactNative. There was no build-in way to do audio, something I need for the app I am trying to build. However, I found a plugin for it on github. I know Google has a reputation of canceling projects, but Flutter is used to develop the Google AdWords app so I don't think it will go away anytime soon.
- eklavya 8y ago
  You don’t have to reload manually. Reloads automatically, make sure you have turned on reload on save in vs code or something similar in IntelliJ.
  - ma2rten 8y ago
    I see. I am using vim + commandline.
    - yorwba 8y ago
      You could try writing a shell script using inotifywait to look for changes and then notify the program that it needs to reload the code.
hliyan 8y ago
I've been a React fanatic for several years, so my opinion is colored by that: 1. Great DX (developer experience) - a single language (Dart); no need for JSX, JavaScript, JSON, Flux/Redux and various other libraries. You can focus on the business logic rather than battling the ecosystem. 2. A single set of components (no iOS or Android specific navigator components etc.) 3. No longer need a JS engine to run - truly native 4. As fast as promised
- grigy 8y ago
  Being agree with all 4 points I see two drawbacks: 1. Not using OEM widgets. Even the rendered widgets may look good, they can't beat the native widgets optimized for the particular platform. 2. The choice of Dart as the main language. I can understand both points though
  - quangio 8y ago
    I don't think using non-OEM widgets is a bad thing because it's not like Electron; Flutter uses Skia to render widgets, and it's fast. There is an article https://medium.com/flutter-io/why-flutter-doesnt-use-oem-widgets-94746e812510 https://medium.com/flutter-io/why-flutter-doesnt-use-oem-wid...
    - malkia 8y ago
      I love Flutter, and how it looks, but while I was at the Google I/O Extended I was given an Android Things Kit. That specific version of the kit did not had GPU, and later (at home) when I tried Flutter - it was running very slow, while other android apps were manageable. Then again, this is more of an outlier (today) with the GPU present almost on any mobile device, but still something to know about (e.g. flutter won't be of good use there).
      - gcb0 8y ago
        that's an interesting point. wonder how bad it is for battery since it takes away the cpu/gpu decision from the OS

I tried both Flutter and ReactNative. I am not an expert, so take it with a grain of salt, but here is my first impression: I would say the best part about it is the hot reload, which maintains application state. It's compiled to native code so it's going to run faster than ReactNative which is a javascript bundle that runs besides your app. Compile times are fast, but not instantaneous and you have to trigger the reload manually. I think it also has the most complete implementation of Material UI out there. It implements widgets that are not implemented in iOS, Android nor Web. It's like having something like bootstrap that makes it easier to build a good looking app. I feel like you really need a mock first to build a reactnative app, but you could get away with just writing code in flutter. Unlike ReactNative there is no way of trying it without installing the Android or iOS development environment. Initially that was a bit of a barrier for me as a first-time mobile dev, but not a big deal eventually. It's not as mature as ReactNative. There was no build-in way to do audio, something I need for the app I am trying to build. However, I found a plugin for it on github. I know Google has a reputation of canceling projects, but Flutter is used to develop the Google AdWords app so I don't think it will go away anytime soon.

eklavya 8y ago
You don’t have to reload manually. Reloads automatically, make sure you have turned on reload on save in vs code or something similar in IntelliJ.
- ma2rten 8y ago
  I see. I am using vim + commandline.
  - yorwba 8y ago
    You could try writing a shell script using inotifywait to look for changes and then notify the program that it needs to reload the code.

hliyan 8y ago

I've been a React fanatic for several years, so my opinion is colored by that: 1. Great DX (developer experience) - a single language (Dart); no need for JSX, JavaScript, JSON, Flux/Redux and various other libraries. You can focus on the business logic rather than battling the ecosystem. 2. A single set of components (no iOS or Android specific navigator components etc.) 3. No longer need a JS engine to run - truly native 4. As fast as promised

grigy 8y ago
Being agree with all 4 points I see two drawbacks: 1. Not using OEM widgets. Even the rendered widgets may look good, they can't beat the native widgets optimized for the particular platform. 2. The choice of Dart as the main language. I can understand both points though
- quangio 8y ago
  I don't think using non-OEM widgets is a bad thing because it's not like Electron; Flutter uses Skia to render widgets, and it's fast. There is an article https://medium.com/flutter-io/why-flutter-doesnt-use-oem-widgets-94746e812510 https://medium.com/flutter-io/why-flutter-doesnt-use-oem-wid...
  - malkia 8y ago
    I love Flutter, and how it looks, but while I was at the Google I/O Extended I was given an Android Things Kit. That specific version of the kit did not had GPU, and later (at home) when I tried Flutter - it was running very slow, while other android apps were manageable. Then again, this is more of an outlier (today) with the GPU present almost on any mobile device, but still something to know about (e.g. flutter won't be of good use there).
    - gcb0 8y ago
      that's an interesting point. wonder how bad it is for battery since it takes away the cpu/gpu decision from the OS